Local Contexts: Collaborative Curation Training and Education for Indigenous collections

FAIN: PE-263553-19

New York University (New York, NY 10012-1019)
Jane E. Anderson (Project Director: May 2018 to present)

Development of a curriculum for collaborative curation of Native American cultural heritage collections, training of 50-70 staff in six institutions across the United States, assessment and evaluation of the training, testing of two new Traditional Knowledge Labels, and creation of a Collaborative Curation Center for online sharing of the curriculum and resources.

We are applying for an NEH Education and Training Grant (Continuing Education) to increase knowledge and skills for the ongoing preservation, access and curation of Indigenous cultural heritage materials. This grant would allow the Local Contexts team at NYU to build out a specialized "Intellectual Property, Rights and Native American Collections" curriculum that provides specialized training on: IP and Digitization for Native American collections; advanced training in the collaborative preservation and curation digital tools that we have developed - the TK Labels and Mukurtu CMS; and technical training in developing collaborative curation workflows that can accommodate IP and Indigenous cultural rights.

Associated Products

Decolonizing Attribution (Article)
Title: Decolonizing Attribution
Author: Kim Christen
Author: Jane Anderson
Abstract: In this article we provide a structural critique of attribution as it is figured in colonial practices and ongoing settler-colonial logics that form the basis for creating, circulating, and sharing knowledge through research practices, methods, and platforms. Settler colonialism is a tradition, and as such, it has habits. One of these habits is to hide specific tactics and practices in operationalizing dispossession. Attribution is one of these tactics. Attribution functions as a key mechanism within a copyright/author/archive matrix which maintains hierarchies of knowledge production by reducing Indigenous and non- European subjectivity and legitimating the ongoing appropriation of Indigenous1 cultural material by non-Indigenous authors. The colonial force of attribution and its practices of exclusion are hidden in the stacks and how they are populated; in the rights fields of databases and how they are cited; in archival processes of selection, appraisal, and accessioning; and through efforts to digitize content and collections in order to make them open without acknowledgment and ongoing relationships. We argue that one mode of decolonizing practices for libraries and archives is through remaking, reframing, and refiguring attribution through ongoing Indigenous connections to land and knowledge.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/38
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Publisher: Journal of Radical Librarianship

Toward Slow Archives (Article)
Title: Toward Slow Archives
Author: Kim Christen
Author: Jane Anderson
Abstract: This article examines the structures, practices, and processes of collection, cataloging, and curation to expose where current cultural authority is placed, valued, and organized within archival workflows. The long arc of collecting is not just rooted in colonial paradigms; it relies on and continually remakes those structures of injustice through the seemingly benign practices and processes of the profession. Our emphasis is on one mode of decolonizing processes that insist on a different temporal framework: the slow archives. Slowing down creates a necessary space for emphasizing how knowledge is produced, circulated, and exchanged through a series of relationships. Slowing down is about focusing differently, listening carefully, and acting ethically. It opens the possibility of seeing the intricate web of relationships formed and forged through attention to collaborative curation processes that do not default to normative structures of attribution, access, or scale.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-019-09307-x
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Publisher: Archival Science

Artist in the Archive - 31 Cylinders (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Artist in the Archive - 31 Cylinders
Writer: No writer
Director: Jer Thorpe
Abstract: n this episode, Jer tells the story of how a team of Passamaquoddy elders, library preservation specialists and scholars restored and re-vitalized a series of traditional songs first recorded on wax cylinders in 1890. Featuring guests Donald Soctomah, Jane Anderson, Fenella France and Peter Alyea, and music by Dwayne Tomah, Peter Selmore, Pierre LeCout and Jeremy Dutcher.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://artistinthearchive.podbean.com/e/episode-8-thirty-one-cylinders/
Access Model: open
Format: Other

TK Labels (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: TK Labels
Writer: no writer
Director: Michael Weinburg
Abstract: Professor Jane Anderson of New York University discussed how indigenous and traditional knowledge interacts with intellectual property law. Professor Anderson co-created the Local Contexts project, home to the Traditional Knowledge labels, which we discuss in today’s episode. The Traditional Knowledge labels are designed to help people understand the full context of indigenous and traditional knowledge that is held in archives and museums.You can find out more about the Traditional Knowledge project here: http://localcontexts.org/tk-labels/
Year: 2019
Primary URL: http://https://engelberg-center-innovation-policy-colloquium.simplecast.com/episodes/jane-anderson-on-traditional-knowledge-labels
Format: Other

Local Contexts Film (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Local Contexts Film
Writer: Jane Anderson and Maui Hudson
Director: Andreas Burgess
Producer: Andreas Burgess
Abstract: Describes Local Contexts work
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/622861354
Access Model: open access
Format: Film
Format: Video

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